And speaking of focus, one of the most important areas the RAB delivers on is spreading the word about the strengths of radio to the advertising community. We have a great story to tell and our message is simple - radio is live, local, mobile, personal, social and interactive.

I wanted to share a few of the accounts currently being worked on by the RAB team. This can be important to you as there may be regional and/or local decision-makers in your markets, and by working together this can really help move the needle in radio's favor.

And while we are talking about specific advertisers, one of the requests we hear most frequently is for successful and timely radio case studies. We have been busy updating our files and have recently added many new ones, including Target Grocery and Healthcare, Starwood - Aloft Hotels & Four Points by Sheraton, Caribou Coffee, Cracker Barrel, Six Flags and GoDaddy - all of which include RAB's influence. To locate these case studies and more, just go to RAB.com and click on the radio icon on our homepage. Once your password has been accepted click on the research tab at the top of the page, put your cursor on radio, and on the drop-down menu you will see that case studies is one of the options.

Earlier this year, your RAB partnered with Borrell Associates on benchmarking local radio stations' online revenues. The results which were released last month showed positive news for radio. In fact, the study says that radio grew its online ad revenues 22% last year, outpacing the overall increase in local online ad expenditures. We also learned that radio stations are focusing their sales efforts on such things as email advertising, paid search and video advertising. While banner ads are still the largest single source of revenue for 32% of the stations who participated in the study, the number actually dropped to 22% looking ahead to 2013. As an RAB member the full study is available to you on RAB.com.

This past month the RAB team, along with our NAB partners, met with the Steering Committee for The Radio Show, which is being held September 18-20 at the Rosen Shingle Hotel in Orlando, Florida. This year's Chairman is José Valle, President of Univision Radio, and he is working tirelessly on making sure this conference is the best ever. For more information and/or to register, please go to www.RadioShowWeb.com.

For those of you planning to attend the upcoming NAB in Las Vegas, we hope you make time to attend the sales & marketing sessions which are being produced once again by the RAB. Topics being covered include alternative revenue, meeting goals in an uncertain environment, technology to enhance salespeople's productivity, and how stations are making money with digital. We look forward to seeing you there.

On behalf of all of us at the RAB, thank you for your continued support. Your RAB is at work on your behalf. Have a question? Need help with a specific client - we are here for you. Remember, just Ask RAB at 800-232-3131 and join us on Facebook. Here is to a great month and some warmer weather!

Best,